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Friday, February 24, 2017

Law And Love

I watched a
movie last weekend, Gone Baby Gone,
and it had an interesting premise with a nice twist at the end. I can’t write
this post without revealing either, so you might want to skip a paragraph or
two.

A young girl is
taken in the dead of night. Whereabouts unknown. No real leads. The girl's aunt
begs a private detective to take the case because he has connections to
criminal Boston that the police do not. As the story unfolds, it turns out that
the girl’s uncle gave the little girl to a police officer to take care of
because the girl’s mother was a crackhead and a dealer. He wanted the little
girl to have a future and felt this was the only way she would. He acted out of
Love and didn’t follow the Law.

The private
detective has a decision to make.

The Law stated
that the girl needed to be taken from the policeman and his wife and given back
to the girl’s mother. The uncle would be arrested for complicity and the
policeman and his wife arrested for kidnapping. This decision, potentially,
would cost the little girl a bright and promising future.

Love might be to
let the little girl live with the policeman and his wife. Of course, the
private detective would have to shut his eyes and live with the fact that the
little girl isn’t where she should be, but this decision, potentially, gave a
better future to the little girl.

Hmmm . . . Law
vs Love.

Tough decision
sometimes. Of course, it could and probably should be argued that the most
loving thing is to get the little girl back to her mother where “she belongs.”
I get that.

As a counselor
and now as an administrator, I deal in the world of gray. Nothing is really
ever black or white. We do have the Law but sometimes there are circumstances
and situations that cause me to think of a better way, another alternative. I’m
always reminded by others that “I’m opening up a can of worms” and that “I’m
not being consistent” and that “there’s past precedence to consider.” I get
that.

But kids are
kids and people are people and sometimes . . . most of the time . . . this isn’t
a cookie cutter world. Sometimes acting as the “judge” I have to act in the
best interest of the child. It isn’t easy and there are times, I admit, that I
set myself up as seemingly “unfair” because I’m not treating two similar cases
the same way. I get that.

Sometimes it’s
just easier to enforce the Law. It’s black and white and there isn’t any gray
and I can rest assured that following it, I am being consistent and the Law or
code or whatever will be on my side. Not necessarily the most Loving thing to
do, but it is following the Law.

Let’s look at
another example, a trickier one.

A while back, a
couple went to a bakery and ordered a wedding cake. The bakery refused to make
one for them because the couple was gay citing their religion as an excuse.

Not knowing
exactly what religion we’re talking about, I suppose one can site biblical
references and passages that might convince us that the folks who own the
bakery are in the right. I guess that’s possible.

But then, we’d
have to look at all the biblical references and perhaps enforce the punishment
for breaking various Laws that call for plucking eyes out, cutting off hands,
flogging and stoning as consequences. Perhaps while we’re at it, if we’re
against abortion, we should be against the death penalty, don’t you think? I
mean, one life equals one life. The Bible can be confusing that way. In one
part, the Old Testament, it calls for “an eye for an eye” whereas in the New
Testament, it calls for “turning the other cheek.”

Hmmm . . . Can
be confusing, right? Not so black and white, is it?

So, if we’re
kicking folks out of our country or if we prevent folks from coming to our
country who are fleeing war and death and trying to live in peace and safety,
what happens to the biblical references to “Honor thy neighbor as thy brother?”
Or the lesson of the beatitudes (New
Testament) dealing with feeding and clothing the poor, and “whatever you do to
the least of my brethren you do unto me.” If we enforce one set of rules and
one interpretation using biblical reference, then perhaps we need to site them
all and use that code and Law to follow. I mean, if we want to be black and
white, right?

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A 14 year old
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FBI Agent Pete
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